Smoky Syrian Pepper Boasts A Seductive Power

Amanda Hesser, New York Times

Published
4:00 am PST, Wednesday, March 29, 2000

Peppers release their heat in many ways, whether in a straight drive like cayenne or a consuming explosion like a jalapeno. The Aleppo pepper is more seductive, exuding a mellow, earthy warmth that seems to expand rapidly, then slowly dissipate.

When sprinkled over roasted potatoes, the deep red waxy flakes of the Aleppo, a pepper that comes from Syria, do not just add flavor; they change the potatoes. Behind their pure nutty flavor, there is smokiness and a little spice. With carrots, the pepper underlines the vegetable's sweetness with its own raisin-like taste -- and that lingering heat. It is like paprika, but much more complex.

Aleppo refers to red peppers in the capsicum family that are grown, partly dried and coarsely ground around the city of Aleppo. Other peppers from nearby regions look the same, but the Aleppo flavor is distinct, just as the flavor of prosciutto di Parma is distinct from other cured pork.

Joyce Goldstein, a San Francisco chef who has written cookbooks, is another devotee of Aleppo pepper, and like Cardoz, she is not a purist about it. She often simply uses it in place of other dried red peppers for a richer, smokier aroma.

"Anytime you have the choice of using hot paprika or a paprika-cayenne combination, that's the time to use it," she said.

A similar pepper called Maras comes from just over the border in Turkey. It looks the same as the Aleppo -- bright red, flaked and moist from a small addition of salt -- but is a tad hotter. Urfa, also from Turkey, is darker and smokier, with a deeper, dried-fruit aroma. Sometimes these peppers are not even packaged with specific names. Maras and Aleppo may simply be labeled Middle Eastern pepper.

Aleppo is used in a spread called muhammara, in which the coarse powder is diluted in oil and water, then mixed with bread crumbs, ground walnuts, lemon juice and pomegranate syrup, and eaten like hummus, with flatbread. It is also used to season meat fillings, legumes and salads.

But you can use it like any other dried red pepper. It can be sprinkled over sweet potatoes with a little coarse sea salt and olive oil before roasting them. Aleppo blends well with other spices, too, like toasted and ground cumin and coriander for coating pieces of carrot before roasting or braising. The light, thin flakes cling well to vegetables, fish and meats and work well with other spices as rubs or in marinades.

Aleppo's sweetness and soft heat is especially good with sweet vegetables like tomatoes and eggplant. One way to see this is to char eggplants and puree them while warm with garlic, olive oil and lemon juice, adding a touch of Aleppo at the end. The pepper underscores the smokiness of the eggplant.

As Cardoz points out, Aleppo has one quality that few other dried red peppers have: you can add it to a finished dish and not worry about the sharpness overwhelming it. "If you add almost any other chili pepper at the end of cooking, it hits you in the throat," he said.

Aleppo has a roasted, finished flavor, so you can simmer white beans with onion, garlic and herbs, then sprinkle in the pepper to taste, rather than having to guess how much to add at the start.

Its restraint is built in. And so is its charm. It's sweet, smoky and a tiny bit bitter -- a pepper that creates its own layer of flavor, quite unlike any other.

Aleppo pepper is available for $6.99 per pound at Middle East Market, 2054 San Pablo Ave. (near University Avenue), Berkeley; (510) 548-2213. Open daily. It can also be found for $5.95 per pound at Middle Eastern Grocery- Samiramis Imports, 2090 Mission St. (between 25th and 26th), San Francisco; (415) 824-6555. Open Monday-Saturday.